The GracieStrong Foundation

11/15/2025

It has been six years since our daughter, Gracie Muehlberger, was taken from us at the young age of 15 on November 14, 2019. Yesterday, on November 14th, 2025 the official Trailer of “All the Empty Rooms” was also released by Netflix.

We continue to honor Gracie by sharing her story with the world and sharing this powerful documentary memorializing the children lost to school shootings. Gracie’s story is part of that journey, and we’re grateful to the Netflix team, along with Steve Hartman, Josh Seftel, and Lou Bopp for including Gracie and our family in this project.

Coming to Netflix Dec 1.

In this moving short documentary, a journalist and a photographer set out to memorialize the bedrooms left behind by children killed in school shootings.Watc...

10/10/2025

Happy 21st Birthday Gracie! (See comment for my full post as I had too much to say today)

02/04/2025

We found this beautiful handwritten note by a young 10-year-old Gracie. Wise beyond her years and still showing us signs and teaching us things.

11/14/2024

5 long and painful years since our beautiful children - Gracie Anne Muehlberger and Dominic Michael Blackwell - were ripped from our arms and a community was rocked forever. We thank all of you for your continued love and support as we continue to heal - though the pain is still so raw and real and will never go away.

07/16/2024

I’m honored to be speaking alongside experts in academia, healthcare, law enforcement, government, and community leadership at the Minnesota Gun Violence Research Summit on November 1, 2024, hosted by the Prevention Project Research Center. Together, we’ll explore evidence-based strategies to prevent gun violence and create safer communities.

The Violence Prevention Project is a non-partisan research center using data to uncover the root causes of gun violence on our society. Together we can make a difference.

12/09/2023

Tonight is our 5th Annual Caroling with Gracie event - from 4-7pm. Meet at Real Life Church Valencia at 4pm.

In partnership with KHTS and Santa Clarita Grocery, we will be collecting canned goods for those in need in our community, while singing Christmas Carols and parading through the Lower Northbridge Community.

At 4pm we will meet to begin decorating cars, drinking hot cocoa, and socializing, prior to departing at around 5pm.

The more cars and the more lights, the more merrier this event will be.

This is brought to you by The GracieStrong Foundation, in partnership with The DMB Foundation, KHTS Radio (Your Hometown Station), and Santa Clarita Grocery.

All canned good proceeds will be donated to Santa Clarita Grocery.

11/26/2023

Only 2 weeks until our 5th Annual Caroling with Gracie event - planned for Saturday December 9th from 4-7pm. Meet at Real Life Church Valencia at 4pm.

In partnership with KHTS and Santa Clarita Grocery, we will be collecting canned goods for those in need in our community, while singing Christmas Carols and parading through the Lower Northbridge Community.

At 4pm we will meet to begin decorating cars, drinking hot cocoa, and socializing, prior to departing at around 5pm.

The more cars and the more lights, the more merrier this event will be.

This is brought to you by The GracieStrong Foundation, in partnership with The DMB Foundation, KHTS Radio (Your Hometown Station), and Santa Clarita Grocery.

All canned good proceeds will be donated to Santa Clarita Grocery.

11/14/2023

On November 14, 2019, a very hard 1,461 days ago today, our worlds were forever changed.  Not a day goes by without a yearning in our hearts to hold our babies one more time.  Not a day goes by without missing the laughter and joy you both brought to ours, and so many other lives.  Not a day goes by without the pain that is deeply rooted in our souls.  Not a day goes by without the thoughts of each of you.
 
On this very difficult day for so many in our world, and around our community, all we ask is that you do a simple Random Act of Kindness for someone and spread love or laughter the way Dominic and Gracie would have done.  This can be as simple as buying a Starbucks for the person in line behind you or offering to pay for the person’s groceries in front of you, or just simply holding the door for someone and letting them go ahead of you.  Do this in their honor and help make this pain filled world a little bit happier today.
 

11/04/2023

Mark your calendars for the 5th Annual “Caroling with Gracie” caroling and car parade event which is planned for December 9th from 4-7pm.

Meeting location and route details coming soon. We will be decorating cars, drinking hot cocoa, and socializing, prior to departing at around 5pm.

This is brought to you by The GracieStrong Foundation, in partnership with The DMB Foundation, KHTS Radio (Your Hometown Station), and Santa Clarita Grocery.

All canned good proceeds will be donated to Santa Clarita Grocery.

12/04/2022

What a wonderful night for our 4th Annual Caroling with Gracie event.

Gracie’s spirit and love for Christmas came to life last night. It was truly heartwarming. She was laughing, singing and smiling along with all of us.

We saw hundreds of smiling faces, young kids in PJ’s dancing for joy and waving to Santa Claus, and people coming out of their homes waving and smiling and singing along with us. It was a blessed night.

We even received a beautiful gift of a Snowman with Angel Wings and a GracieStrong “g” on the Santa hat on top of its head !  Truly made our night.  Thank you

However, we messed up and we were not able to hit all of the planned streets. Sorry to all of those that we couldn’t get to. If you have canned goods for the donation, please take them to Santa Clarita Grocery in name of Caroling with Gracie.  This was due to the special 1948 White Fire Truck from the City of Santa Clarita and KHTS, which was harder to maneuver than we all thought and made getting in and out of the cul-de-sacs a slow process. Bradley from Santa Clarita Grocery was wonderful and is probably exhausted today because that big ol’ truck doesn’t have power steering. Thank you Bradley for being our Driver and all of the hard work you put in for this event.

Here are some pictures from the event.

We hope to continue this tradition and get better each year.

There are so many people to thank - i won’t put all of their names down for fear of forgetting someone. But a special thanks to Frank Blackwell (), The DMB Foundation (), KHTS Radio (), Real Life Church (), Santa Clarita Grocery (), and our neighborhood Starbucks (). Without you we could not pull this off.

Merry Christmas to all of you!

12/04/2022

What a wonderful night for our 4th Annual Caroling with Gracie event.

Gracie’s spirit and love for Christmas came to life last night. It was truly heartwarming. She was laughing, singing and smiling along with all of us.

We saw hundreds of smiling faces, young kids in PJ’s dancing for joy and waving to Santa Claus, and people coming out of their homes waving and smiling and singing along with us. It was a blessed night.

We even received a beautiful gift of a Snowman with Angel Wings and a GracieStrong “g” on the Santa hat on top of its head ! Truly made our night. Thank you

However, we messed up and we were not able to hit all of the planned streets. Sorry to all of those that we couldn’t get to. If you have canned goods for the donation, please take them to Santa Clarita Grocery in name of Caroling with Gracie. This was due to the special 1948 White Fire Truck from the City of Santa Clarita and KHTS, which was harder to maneuver than we all thought and made getting in and out of the cul-de-sacs a slow process. Bradley from Santa Clarita Grocery was wonderful and is probably exhausted today because that big ol’ truck doesn’t have power steering. Thank you Bradley for being our Driver and all of the hard work you put in for this event.

Here are some pictures from the event.

We hope to continue this tradition and get better each year.

There are so many people to thank - i won’t put all of their names down for fear of forgetting someone. But a special thanks to Frank Blackwell (), The DMB Foundation (), KHTS Radio (), Real Life Church (), Santa Clarita Grocery (), and our neighborhood Starbucks (). Without you we could not pull this off.

Merry Christmas to all of you!

12/03/2022

Tonight is the night! The 4th Annual Caroling with Gracie event begins at 4pm tonight.

We are meeting at Real Life Church at 4pm to get setup and will be departing for the caroling car parade at 5pm. We will return to RLC by ~7pm.

Hope to see you all there!